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13 Tiny Little Life Hacks To Reduce Your Plastic Use By 90% Without Even Noticing

2. Stop buying bottled water

Those plastic water bottles are another one of the worst environmental offenders. They’re one of the top five most common types of trash found on beaches. According to One Green Planet, the U.S. goes through about 1,500 plastic water bottles every second – and, it takes around a century for them to break down.

As it costs a whole lot more than water you get from the tap, you’ll save money by giving up that bottled water, and you’ll be potentially saving your health too, by avoiding the hazards of plastic toxins leaking into that drink. Instead, carry a reusable canteen or stainless-steel bottle.

3. Buy from bulk bins

Many grocery stores sell food in bulk, such as beans, nuts, rice and cereals. By filling up a reusable container or bag instead of buying items that are already packaged, you can save all of that unnecessary packaging, and money too. If you’re concerned about having to pay for the weight of the bag, your local store’s customer service desk will likely have a method they use to deduct its weight. Many cotton bags made for this purpose already have their weight printed on them, which makes it easy to deduct at checkout.

4. Take a thermos to the coffee shop

If you go to Starbucks on a daily basis, or any other coffee shop, you’re going through 365 disposable coffee cups every year. That’s a ton of plastic. Can you imagine how big that number is when combined with everyone else who has the same habit? In America alone, there are said to be 25 billion thrown away annually. While it may look like paper, those cups are typically lined with a type of plastic resin known as polyethylene. Some coffee vendors are still using polystyrene foam cups, which are even worse, and those lids and stirrers are all plastic too.

All of that plastic can be avoided just by bringing your own thermos, or a mug.